Write your Congressmen

Thursday, July 30, 2009

That depends on your definitions of "Efficiency"

This is such a stupid program on many levels... but what angers me the most is that viable automobiles are being trashed into landfills simply because some bureaucrats think they're not "efficient."

Well, I've got news for them: it's far less efficient to take automobiles than run just fine (but maybe use more gas than we'd like) and throw them away. Into what trash heap do they go, with all their waste oil, tires, rubber, plastic and other environment-polluting parts that make them what they are? Longer functional life of an auto, or any machinery, is the most efficient way to use it.

Duh.

Officials Say Government Set to Suspend 'Cash for Clunkers' Program - Political News - FOXNews.com:
"WASHINGTON -- The government plans to suspend its popular 'cash for clunkers' program amid concerns it could quickly use up the $1 billion in rebates for new car purchases, congressional officials said Thursday."

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

An Open letter to Congress on Health Care

Dear Congress,

I am very concerned about what the Democrats are forcing on America in the guise of health care "reform."

You are creating a problem where there is none, all so you, as a Democrat, can claim a sweeping change in American culture. This is not right. Changes in culture come in a slow process over time, brought about by the people who form that culture. Changes as large as health care should never come in a rush. Especially, they should never come in the form of legislation (meaning that's it's forced on the majority, who are unwilling).

Congress never takes a direct approach to anything, making me wonder what is being hidden? I recommend a direct approach in the case of health care for the poor, leaving the rest alone. If you think there are people who are not covered by health care now (and I disagree with that), then appropriate the money to pay for their health care and be done with it. Here are some ideas for health care so that you leave working people alone:

1. A simple suggestion is to just pay for the currently uninsured to be members in a low-cost HMO. Commercial HMOs can even bid on the service to the poor through a government contract. I really can't for the life of me understand why Congress doesn't simply do this.
2. A much larger idea is for the US Public Health Service to provide care for the uninsured. The PHS used to be much larger than it is now, and could easily be expanded using the VA as a model. Very expensive, but if you want a sweeping change, there it is.
3. Provide care for the indigent at VA hospitals. What's good for our vets is certainly good for the poor.
4. Give the uninsured the exact same insurance given to Congress.

It is clear that what Congress is doing is upsetting every American in the name of Democratic party progress, and control over the American health care system. I resent this. Government is not capable of running anything, and you know it. What the Democratic party is actually doing is ruining the American health care system, even for those coming from overseas to use it.

Don't ruin the best in the world!

STOP!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Cities go bankrupt

Brand name companies go bankrupt - Vallejo, Calif.: Like state, like city (13) - CNNMoney.com:
"The town on San Pablo Bay just north of San Francisco filed bankruptcy as plunging property taxes crippled the town's coffers and left the city unable to make-good on union labor contracts."

Friday, July 24, 2009

Acting Stupidly

Former President Bush is considered by the left as a stupid man. But did he ever do anything this dumb - making harsh statements without knowing even the slightest of detail? Words have consequences, as Obama will find out.

'Disgraceful': Cops Angry After Obama Slams Arrest of Black Scholar - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com:
Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama: Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own.

Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday. It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.

"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president's alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."

The Cambridge Police Patrol Officer's Association president also strongly criticized the president's remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post.

"That was totally inappropriate. I am disgraced that he is our commander-in-chief," Stephen Killion said. "He smeared the good reputation of the hard-working men and women of the Cambridge Police Department. It was wrong to do. It was disgraceful," the web site quoted him as saying.

Obama was asked about Gates' arrest at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts.

"Obama said, "... the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And ...what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Critics Question Obama's Assertion No One Would Be Forced to Change Health Plans

Critics Question Obama's Assertion No One Would Be Forced to Change Health Plans - Political News - FOXNews.com:
"President Obama's repeated assertion that Americans content with their current health insurance can keep it doesn't include employees whose employers decide to drop their private plans for the government option.

"It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it," Obama said.

But the president has been careful not to tread over the provisions of a massive health care reform bill that say private companies can decide at any time to elect a different health plan for their employees -- with or without the implementation of a public plan -- leaving employees forced to change their coverage.

In a June 23 interview with ABC News, Obama noted: "When I say if you have your plan and you like it, or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don't have to change plans, what I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform."

But private insurers warn that Obama's reform proposals eventually would lead to the demise of insurance companies because employers unquestionably would opt for a government plan.
"The American public will ultimately be the ones negatively impacted by a government-sponsored plan because it is fiscally irresponsible, will turn back the clock on quality, threaten patients' access and choice and worsen the existing cost shift between individuals on a government plan and those on employer-sponsored plans," Chris Curran, a spokesman for CIGNA, told FOXNews.com."

Making Hay from a Very Small Local Event

There stands United States of America President Barack Obama, hawking his ill-conceived heath-reform plan, when out of the blue comes a question about an event local to Boston, and relevant to nothing in the President's international address:

The question, which I believe to be planted by the administration as an opportunity to both deflect attention from the poor bill and to rehash the race debate, asked about one of Obama's friends, Henry Louis Gates, a Harvard university professor of African American studies who was arrested for disorderly conduct after visibly breaking into what was later determined to be his own home.

Cambridge Police Officer To Obama: Butt Out of My Arrest - Political News - FOXNews.com:

Asked about the incident, Obama, who is friends with the professor and documentary filmmaker, told reporters at a Wednesday night press conference that he didn't know all the facts. But he said, "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."

A police report of the incident written by Officer Carlos Figueroa, who responded to the call with Crowley, says Crowley was already in the house when he walked in. The report says Crowley had asked Gates for some identification and Gates shouted that he would not give any information and called the sergeant a racist.

According to the report, Gates then yelled, "This is what happens to black men in America." When Crowley tried to calm him down, Gates shouted, "You don't know who you're messing with."

The report continues that the shouting went on after Gates and the officers walked out onto the front porch. When Gates allegedly wouldn't cooperate or calm down, Crowley arrested him.

Click here to read a copy of the police report (pdf).

Crowley told the radio station that he asked Gates to step outside because he didn't know who Gates was, and he was alone and didn't know if his safety was compromised.

"I had no other motive than to ensure my safety, or he could've been the homeowner who was unaware that there were people in his house unauthorized. I just didn't know," Crowley said.


The charge against Gates was dropped on Tuesday. The police department issued a statement saying the incident "was regrettable and unfortunate" and should not "be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department."

Crowley, however, has refused to apologize, and he told the radio station he did nothing wrong. He added he was surprised that a man as educated as Gates would start yelling epithets about Crowley's mom, part of the incident that never made it into the police report.

...Expanding on the implications of the arrest, Obama told reporters Wednesday that this incident shows that there is a long history of racial profiling in the United States.

"And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause," he said.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the president does not regret his choice of language.

California Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she agreed that Gates' arrest was another example of racial profiling.

"It's part of the unfinished business of America," the Democratic congresswoman said.


Obama admits he didn't know all the facts; but that didn't keep him silent, did it? He called the Boston police's actions "stupid," and by extension calling the officer in question stupid. Seems to me like the offocer acted in good faith in responding to a neighbor's report of what was thought to be criminal activity.

And now, there's an official report surfacing by another officer that Gates was indeed disorderly.

Obama talks about racial profiling; yes, that Gates is black is what got him off the hook.

So, is this how a black man in America is treated? Well, it's certainly how an asshole should be treated. And since Obama injected himself into this, maybe he should be lumped into the same bin as Gates, eh - just another angry black with an axe to grind?

I learned a long time ago that, to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. As a professor of African American studies, Gates sees himself first and foremost as a black in America - an America that oppresses minorities. On Wednesday he didn't see a Boston police officer enter his home for a legitimate reason; Gates saw a white authority give him a hard time, and he therefore went into a confrontational stance - the thing that the civil righteous do. Logic went right out of Gates' mind.

So who's the racist? And is this the caliber of professor at Harvard? God help Academia.

Obama hold on records raises hypocrisy charge

Obama hold on records raises hypocrisy charge - Washington Times:
"The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the administration, after the Secret Service refused its request for information on visits from executives representing health insurers, hospitals, doctors, drug companies and other interests. CREW said it was seeking the records in an effort to gauge the extent to which the industry players had affected Mr. Obama's health care policy.

The episode turned the tables on Mr. Obama, who during the 2008 presidential campaign accused Vice President Dick Cheney of unnecessary secrecy in refusing to identify which energy executives weighed in on energy policy early in the Bush years and who criticized his primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, of doing the same thing during the 1993-94 health care debate."

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Mayo Clinic calls House plan bad medicine

Mayo Clinic calls House plan bad medicine - Washington Times:
"A world-renowned clinic that President Obama held up as an example of good medicine said Monday that the American people would be 'losers' under the House's health care proposal, joining the growing chorus of critics the Obama administration is trying to fend off as the debate intensifies from Capitol Hill to Main Street.

Minnesota's not-for-profit Mayo Clinic, which Mr. Obama has repeatedly hailed as offering top quality care at affordable costs, blasted the House Democrats' version of the health care plan as lawmakers continue to grapple with several bills from each chamber and multiple committees.

The Mayo Clinic said there are some positive elements of the bill, but overall 'the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher quality, more affordable health care for patients.'

'In fact, it will do the opposite,' clinic officials said, because the proposals aren't [R]patient-focused or results-oriented. 'The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.'"

The Public Health Care Option

It's bad:
Think of health insurance like any other insurance - companies are hedging a bet that they will take in more money than they expend. The product they deliver - whether it be costs for a car accident or costs for healthcare - don't matter. What matters is that they make money.

In the case of car insurers, if you're bad risk, like having too many accidents or too many tickets, you lose you insurance. Here in MD, car insurance is mandatory, so if an insurance company drops you, you have to buy state-run car insurance, Called MAIF. That's the Maryland Auto Insurance Fund.

In my younger and wilder years, I found myself in their clutches. Their rates were about 3 times higher than the highest private insurer, and probably with good reason. The insurance was also bad. No such thing as insurance to cover your car - all that was covered was the other guy and the minimum PIP that was required by law. In other words, you could still get sued and lose everything if you had a bad accident.

Private insurance was only an option if you could find an insurer willing to pick you up. You know the drill - stay out of trouble for about 3 years, re-establish yourself as a good driver, and then you go with one of the expensive, ;ow-end private insurers for about another 3 years, then you're more or less clean, and can get with a decent company.

That is Maryland's car insurance public "option." I went through this; I know.

Now apply that to health care.

The problems created:
If we have a public option, expect it to be like Medicare and the VA put together. It would be so because there's no other way that the Feds know how to run an operation. Endless bureaucracy and low quality, because no one with any sense wants to work for them.

FYI: if you have no experience with the VA, know that they are not known for 3 things: Speed, efficiency, and up-to-date medical practices. Forget cutting edge; it simply costs too much. The VA relies on medicine that is old-school with low effectiveness, because it's cheap.

So with a Federal health-care option, you can expect to pay a good chunk of money (Medicare ain't cheap), for crowded services that are out of date. And overall, it will lose money due to systemic inefficiency and an apathetic workforce.

Effects on the Marketplace:
Now consider what this will do to private insurance: it will drive up the price. The reasons are simple: The health insurers will now be able to offload their worst cases (meaning those people with chronic diseases like MS, Lupus, diabetes, asthma, migraines, etc etc) onto the public plan. Remember, private insurers are all about efficiency and keeping costs low relative to income. They may be the insurer of choice for the young with no health problems. The public option will be the forced option for the elderly, the infirmed, and those with low and even middle income, as well and anyone with any degree of health issue. Forced there, because the private insurers will price their coverage for "pre-existing conditions" so high as to be only affordable by the wealthy. (That's probably fair, though, since they're the ones who will be taxed to death so that the Federal public option can exist at all.)

If you want examples, look to Hawaii and Tennessee.

So the mess proposed by the Democrats from President Obama on down is not at all what it seems; it's written by people who don't know the first thing about economics or business, much less heath care.

Urgent?
Congress's plan disrupts an entire nationwide health delivery service that is the model for the world, so they can deliver care to a small minority. Think about it: 315 million people will be disrupted to cover 16 million people. Stupid. It's throwing out the baby with the bathwater - bathwater that's actually pretty clean. Factor in that the 16 million uninsured do receive healthcare - usually through emergency medicine departments and free clinics. So it's not like they're dying in the streets. They just don't get their care in as organized a fashion as the rest of us.

So what's the rush?

The Solution:
How do we cover the 16 million uninsured? Stop looking at it as an insurance problem, and look at it as a health care delivery problem. Take money out of it for a moment.

Those with low incomes and uninsured - why can't they be rolled into either (or both) the Medicare and/or VA systems? It seems to me that if VA healthcare is good enough for veterans, it's certainly good enough for the poor. Heath insurance costs (meaning administrative costs) are removed from the equation this way, allowing the government to focus solely on delivery costs, as they do with the VA. Ideally, the Public Health Service would be expanded for the poor, separating their health care from the VA system. But the VA can be used as a model for the PHS delivery system.

If Congress is hell-bent on providing insurance to the poor, why not simply roll them into the Senate's health insurance plan? What's good for goose... But as usual, the Democrats want to give us something that's not good enough for them.

As always, the Congress has ideas that it thinks are good (for whatever reason), then rams it down the throats of the People. In this case, it's coming at light speed. That's not right. Something this big and far-reaching needs 2 things: deliberation and public input. But don't hold your breath.

Since the uninsured are now receiving healthcare, maybe the right thing to do is nothing.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Gagging on Health Care

Has it occurred to anyone that this is being rammed down the throats of Americans?

House Democrats Use Key Votes to Rally Support to Health Care Plan, Despite Hurdles - Political News - FOXNews.com:
"...a group of six Democrats and Republicans announced their opposition to 'timelines which prevent us from achieving the best result.'

The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are pushing for legislation to clear both houses by the August recess, but the letter said, 'we believe that taking additional time to achieve a bipartisan result is critical.'"

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Police limited from Arresting Illegals - What the Hell?

Obama's Homeland Security seems anything but. They're restricting the ability of local police to enforce Federal law. Let's hear that again - the police are restricted from enforcing the law. The feds want police to stop police from arresting folks for what they call "minor infractions." What's so minor about being in a country illegally? That'll get you arrested anywhere in the world. Unless that "anywhere" happens to be in the US, and the arrestee happens to be Hispanic.

Talk about racial profiling!

New Curbs Set on Arrests of Illegal Immigrants - WSJ.com:
"The new guidelines sharply reduce the ability of local law enforcement to arrest and screen suspected illegal immigrants. They are intended to prevent sheriff and police departments from arresting people 'for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings,' according to Homeland Security. The program will instead focus on more serious criminals."

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Rating Politics

Politics is intellectually and morally inferior to damned near everything.
- Former US Senator Dick Armey

Monday, July 6, 2009

Childhood on Baltimore's Streets

Suspect in shooting of girl, 5, had been put on home monitoring

A 17-year-old boy accused of firing the errant shot that struck a 5-year-old girl in the head last week had been placed on home monitoring just one day earlier after pleading guilty to a juvenile charge, multiple sources told The Baltimore Sun.

Lamont Davis was awaiting a bail review hearing Monday afternoon on two counts of attempted first-degree murder, as community leaders planned a vigil for the girl at the scene of the shooting...

...Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in an e-mail that a citywide prayer vigil is planned for 6 p.m. Monday in the 300 block of Pulaski St., where Thursday's shooting occurred.

"Never again can we allow such a tragic incident such as the shooting of one of our children to take place and 48 hours passes by and the men [of] Baltimore have not immediately come to the protection and aid of our children, our families and our communities," Cheatham wrote in an e-mail to other community leaders. "We are calling for an emergency meeting to urgently develop an immediate response and communication network that will enable us to do all that can be expected, desired and required of us."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-shooting-girl0706,0,6045780.story?track=rss


The NAACP is ineffective once again. They want hold a prayer vigil. Nice. What they should have done was hold a surveillance vigil outside this 17-year old thug's house until he was put in prison.

Blacks in Baltimore complain they don't have safe streets, yet every time - and I mean every - that the police do something about criminal activity, they start screaming discrimination. It's an interesting argument, seeing as how these neighborhoods are all black, including the police.

But if they want safe streets and children who see their 6th birthday without hearing gunshots, they have to do a lot more than pray, as suggested by the NAACP.

The NAACP knows that, but they also know that if they solve the problem, then the reason for their existence goes away.


resistance

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
- Thomas Jefferson"

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Meaning of Ricci by Charles Krauthammer

The Meaning of Ricci by Charles Krauthammer on National Review Online:
"We’re 45 years beyond passage of the Civil Rights Act. We have a black attorney general and a black president. As with every passing year we move generationally away from the era of Jim Crow, it becomes less and less justified for the government to mandate “remedial” racial discrimination. Which is why in one of her last opinions, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that “the Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.”

The import of Ricci, which raised the bar on reverse discrimination, is that it heads us once again toward that day — and back to true colorblindness that was the original vision, and everlasting glory, of the civil-rights movement."

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Money tips from the Founding Fathers - MSN Money

Money tips from the Founding Fathers

For this Independence Day, here are words of financial wisdom -- to and from some of the Americans portrayed on US currency.

Benjamin Franklin famously coined the phrase "A penny saved is a penny earned." But, as it turns out, a few other founders of the United States of America had something to say on the subject of finance, too.

In the spirit of the Fourth of July, we present their timeless advice, which might just help you forge your own financial independence.

John Adams © iStock

John Adams

John Adams, on the importance of a financial education:

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from the defects of the Constitution, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."

-- From a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1787

Thomas Jefferson © iStock

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, on living within your means:

"But I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, than after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt when they have a family growing up to maintain and provide for."

Benjamin Frankling © iStock

Benjamin Franklin

-- From a letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph in 1808

Benjamin Franklin, on the magic of compounding:

"Remember that Money is of a prolific generating Nature. Money can beget Money and its Offspring can beget more, and so on. Five Shillings turn'd, is Six: Turn'd again, 'tis Seven and Three Pence; and so on 'til it becomes an Hundred Pound. The more there is of it, the more it produces every Turning, so that the Profits rise quicker and quicker."

Alexander Hamilton © iStock

Alexander Hamilton

-- From "Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One," 1748

Alexander Hamilton, on what constitutes a sound economy:

"Industry is increased; commodities are multiplied; agriculture and manufacturers flourish; and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state."

-- Report on Manufactures, 1790

George Washington © iStock

George Washington

George Washington, on getting rich quick:

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

-- From a letter, Aug. 17, 1779

This article was reported by Tina E. Korbe for Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.

Reaffirmation of Being American

Since most of us haven't thought about this document and the subsequent developments since about the 5th grade, on this July 4 I thought it proper to have another look at the Declaration of Independence. Please read on. It's a reaffirmation of who we are. It'll also put recent governmental events in perspective, and hopefully recharge our efforts to maintains our hard-fought freedoms.

United States Declaration of Independence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Friday, July 3, 2009

the Left will Stop at nothing, not even God

Liberals are even bastardizing biblical scripture to promote their agenda.

In Political Ads, Christian Left Mounts Sermonic Campaigns - WSJ.com:
"The ads, funded by a left-leaning coalition, urge support for congressional legislation to curb greenhouse-gas emissions -- by framing the issue as an urgent matter of Biblical morality.

'As our seas rise, crops wither and rivers run dry, God's creation cries out for relief,' begins one ad, narrated by an evangelical megachurch pastor. Another opens with a reference to the Gospel of John, slams energy interests for fighting the bill, and concludes: 'Please join the faithful in speaking out against the powerful.'"

Powell airs doubts on Obama agenda - Washington Times

Powell airs doubts on Obama agenda - Washington Times:
"Colin Powell, one of President Obama's most prominent Republican supporters, expressed concern Friday that the president's ambitious blitz of costly initiatives may be enlarging the size of government and the federal debt too much.

'I'm concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them,' Mr. Powell said in an excerpt of an interview with CNN's John King, released by the network Friday morning."

Thursday, July 2, 2009

We Knew the media was "in the tank," but didn't know this deep

Washington Post Cancels Plans to Hold Costly Dinner for Lobbyists - Political News - FOXNews.com:
"After a newsroom uproar, The Washington Post has canceled plans to hold a high-dollar dinner at the publisher's home at which the company would have charged guests $25,000 and up for access to top officials in Washington...

"Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told [media reporter Howard Kurtz] he was "appalled."

"It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," he said. "We do not offer access to the newsroom for money."

Duh, do ya think? But aren't you? Methinks you just got busted, that's all.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

change

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.
- Robert Frost